This little point'n'click puzzle adventure didn't aged well: build in flash, weak story (more like a prelude), some puzzles too easy, some way too devious. Lume is definitely not worth its MSRP of 5.99 coins. It seems to be the dev's first commercial game, but knowing State of Play Games from their follow up title KAMI, it's kinda neat to witness their growth and improvement as creators. Lumino City, their third title, should be even better.

Yeah, this sequel to Lume is a major step up. It's still a flash game, but that's where the similarities end. Presentation, puzzles, story progression, music, everything makes the prequel look like a rough prototype. The story was a little bit self serving, but definitely serviceable enough to glue the series of enjoyable puzzles together. Outstanding presentation, the whole world looks like handcrafted and filmed with lots of photography artifacts like bokeh out-of-focus areas, depth of field transitions and some lens flare. Nothing is real time 3D and everything is prerecorded. The whole scene interaction is on rails and can result in awkward moments when your character snaps to an unwanted trajectory. I've enjoyed my time with Lumino City, although it's a little bit forgettable overall.

Platinum's latest character action game Nier: Automata reminded me, that I've never played MGR:R. Not sure what quality to expect from the PC port of Nier, I've looked into Revengeance ... two birds, one stone. Bloody hell (literally), MGR:R surprised me in many ways: so much gore, its story isn't taking prisoners (literally), technically brilliant in terms of presentation and gameplay. The whole experience is such a power fantasy, delightful, start to finish: cyborg ninjas, third person sword fights with fighting game controls, big variety of enemies, gigantic bosses, slicing and dicing. My only complaint is how the game is telling you close to nothing about its mechanics. Parry for example, it was "explained" with a 5 seconds button prompt and a brief audio remark. I played half the game without parry and eventually hit a brickwall, when a boss required it. Luckily a bunch of youtube videos filled that information void and provided guidance. Nevertheless, it's a wicked game. Such a shame that Konami's mismanagement negates any chance for a sequel. The PC port of MGR:R is close to flawless, rock solid 60 fps, perfect frame pacing, impeccable image quality with 8xSGSSAA and HBAO+ via the driver. Resolution is capped at 1080p max, but an overwrite mod tool is available for up to 4K.

Third free update and this SHMUP keeps getting better and better: three new and very unique ships, new boss rush mode, slo-mo feature for bullet time. The core level design, bosses and waves were not massively changed. It still got the same awesome soundtrack. The story cut-scenes got a little bit improved. The accessibility got tweak with an additional checkpoint in-between the last two boss phases; the slo-mo feature helps rookies not to get overwhelmed or offsets the slow speed of certain ships. I've already liked Super Galaxy Squadron, but the new polish really made it extra turbo wicked.

I actually had to google, if this was a 90s arcade SHMUP that I missed. It wasn't, but this game completely nails the look and feel. The gameplay isn't bullet hell and more traditional early 90s shoot'em up style: big sprites, lots of 2D scaling FX and fast pacing. The focus is scoring in a limited amount of time. One could call this time attack, but it's more like a survival mode. The 3 minutes mode is doable, but 5 minutes is a challenge. Fire Arrow sports excellent sprite work, banging chiptune soundtrack and even a tate display option. Wicked arcade fun, which I will definitely revisit.

This game managed to mash match3+ puzzles, roguelike and euro SHMUP together. Each of the six levels starts off with a star path blocked by aliens and hazards. The player needs to clear the path in order to get a shot at the boss. Clearing the path is the puzzle element of the game. Shooting groups of same colored aliens will turn them into gems, but neighboring aliens of different color will crystallize into roadblocks. Picking targets is crucial or you'll quickly paint yourself in a corner. Collected gems pay for new ships with different perks. The roguelike element comes from power-up drops scattered throughout the levels. They allow to permanently upgrade your favorite ships. The SHMUP gameplay is split into very surgical precision work in the puzzle stage of each level, followed by a fast paced boss battle with lots of dodging, survival panic, wild spraying and praying. I really enjoyed this neat little gem, lovely combination of genres with fine sprite work, voice acting and soundtrack.

Intergalactic SHMUPreciation month continues in full force. REVOLVER360 is a pretty basic STG at its core, but with one game changing twist: the player can rotate the playing field. This allows to "flatten" impossible bullet curtains, therefore makes dodging easier. There's a catch though, rotating the scene can keep perils out of perspective. Scanning the surrounding while dodging while shooting can often lead to frantic juggling of priorities in a "patting your head and rubbing your belly" sorta way. It all results in interesting and unique gameplay. There are only three full stages and a fourth final boss stage, as brief as it sounds, a complete play through takes less than 25 minutes. The stages branch and exploring the different routes extended the replay value. The challenge mode with its mini missions is another way to squeeze more playtime out of this fun SHMUP. REVOLVER360 is a stunner, completely 3D, highly stylized, tons of particle FX and it runs like greased lightning. The art direction is like the green bits of the Matrix, just in blue. The visuals and the soundtrack are all very striking.

Late to the party, but what a party it is. Definitely one of the best platformers I've ever played: tight controls, amazing animation, stellar artwork, wicked soundtrack and tons of content. On top, all levels from Origins (previous game) are also included. It seems the PS4 is the only release with uncompressed assets, as presumed by Digital Foundry. I've pixel peeped a little and there are really no compression artifacts in sight. The whole experience is pure bliss in terms of gameplay, presentation and technical back-end. Big ups for the humor on display, Legends cracked me up so many times. This is truly a timeless classic!

Two Tribes' swan song and way to end on a high note, because RIVE is all shades of awesome: 360 degree shooting with tons of platforming. The controls are super tight, the weapons pack a punch and even the double jump is super satisfying. The whole presentation is 2D and very high impact, particle effects, sparks, animated background elements, out of focus parallax scrolling, screen shake, the list doesn't end. It's just a joy to tear the place up. There's even a nice little story driving all the mayhem, plenty of puntastic humor and jokes to ease the tension in-between peak-focus action chaos. It's really a shame, that Two Tribes decided to cease game development.

I can't believe it has been 15 years already, because Rez is as fresh as ever. The core gameplay loop in this rail shooter remains super satisfying while being super basic. You hold down the fire button, tag groups of hostiles, release fire button and enjoy the resulting symphony of destruction. Every button press, every tag, every killed enemy adds to the soundscape of the licensed soundtrack. The whole experience is a wild ride trough cyberspace with banging music in your ears. The presentation of the original is mostly unchanged, but got widened from 4:3 to 16:9 and up-rez'd to 1080p@60Hz. They've added a new level for Infinite called Area X, which runs in Unreal engine and is beyond beautiful: an ocean of neon and gold particles FX. This timeless classic got refreshed in the best possible way.

I'm not sure what I can say that doesn't sound like hyperbole. This is an amazing game. Possibly my favorite in the series now. I spent about 50 hours before defeating the final boss. But I actually fought the final boss early, and still have probably another 50 hours to go, before I've completed most of the other tasks (including other Divine Beasts, I only completed 2). The exploration is amazing, I easily would get distracted and just go exploring. The battle is solid, though it took a while for me to get comfortable with it. Music is top notch as expected. Graphics are beautiful, and the framerate drops haven't hit me as bad as some people, and frankly, I barely notice the slower framerates as well, but supposedly this has been improved a lot in the latest patch. The story stays fairly minimal as in most Zelda games, but is really fleshed out more than most. It's funny because a lot of people say it's the weakest story, or the least amount of story, but I think that's because of the sheer amount of side content there is. I'm sure continuing to explore will last me until Mario Kart 8 Deluxe hits, and then the paid DLC for Zelda hits this summer and winter, which I will definitely be picking up.

000002 - Lovers in a Dangerous Space Time - 12/04/17 - PS4 - Fun co-op game about piloting a spaceship that requires mores players than you have! It's hectic and tense but also silly and lovely! The music's great too